


It’s A Problem, But It’s Tomorrow’s Problem

by SaintClaire



Category: Siren (TV 2018)
Genre: Ben is not accepting questions about his love life, Ben's Family - Freeform, Ben's family have literally no idea what the fuck is going on, Domesticity Fluff, Maddie finds the whole thing kind of funny, Multi, Polyamory, Ryn has had enough, Season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 05:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18543382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaintClaire/pseuds/SaintClaire
Summary: In which family gatherings bring out the best in Maddie, give Ben anxiety, and Ryn just wants to go home.





	It’s A Problem, But It’s Tomorrow’s Problem

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a slump of a week, and I need a hug. I haven't seen any of S2 - I'm waiting Stan - and I have more substantial ideas in the master draft list but for now, this is what I wrote, I hope somebody gets something out of it.

Being invited to the annual congregation of Pownall Fisheries was supposed to be a positive thing. A sign that Ben’s family were prepared to accept her as part of their son’s life, rather than a fleeting interest.

 

It was, unfortunately, as boring as all hell.

 

The main dinner was now over, only the heavy hitters remaining, drinking coffee in a more intimate circle of chairs. Ben, despite the suit jacket he’d wrestled himself into for the evening still looked uncomfortable, jiggling one foot on top of his knee, continually glancing over at her as if to make sure she hadn’t escaped when he wasn’t looking.

 

Maddie had considered it. But she wasn’t cruel enough by a long shot to leave Ben in this. His mother and father were circling him like vultures with good intentions, Ted intermittently clapping him on the shoulder in a display to show how ‘united’ the family business was.   She estimated he only had another 10 minutes or so in him before he truly began crack. And Maddie had learnt infallible patience over many years. The main risk at the moment was… well, Ryn.

 

Unwilling to leave Ryn at home by herself for the evening, but equally unwilling to subject her to the boredom that was smarmy corporate events, Ryn had taken the decision out of the hands by putting on one of Maddie’s dresses and simply going to sit in the car. So they’d shut up and taken the hint.

 

She had kept a wary eye on Ryn throughout the evening, knowing the Siren was tired to the point that limited social skills turned into outright hostility. At present, Ryn was sitting at the end of the trestle table with the tea urns, tipping every single packet of sugar into a coffee cup.

 

Maddie watched as she took a swig from the cup and choked, before lifting the cup up to eye level to glare at it. She coughed back a laugh as Ryn pitched it, cup and all, into the garbage, and made a mental note to explain the finesse behind coffee art to their girlfriend one morning when they next had the time.

 

Ben was looking hazy, and for all that Maddie was doing her best to look engaged and willing to be here, she hadn’t heard a word Ben’s dad had spoken for the last 20 minutes. Elaine was still looking at her husband with rapt attention, and Doug was the picture of the prodigal son on her other side. Maddie shifted in her seat to try and sit a little straighter.

 

She caught Ben’s eye for a moment, flickering to her after a worried look in Ryn’s direction, where she was restlessly eyeing up the janitor in the corner. She raised an eyebrow at him, leaning forward in her seat but his attention was suddenly dragged away by Ben’s dad, asking him a question.

 

Ryn stalked over to the group, looking vaguely homicidal and Maddie started to stand up, knowing that she had better odds for staying on good terms with Ben’s family if Ryn didn’t begin murdering them all – before Ryn stomped over to Ben, threw one leg gracefully the both of his and wriggled forward to sit flush against his chest, resting her head against his neck to face Maddie before closing her eyes.

 

Everyone stared at Ryn.

 

After a moment, Ben shrugged, pulled her deeper into his lap and began running a hand slowly up and down her back. Maddie covered her mouth with her hand to hide a smile, hastily clearing her throat.

 

Ted had literally stopped talking halfway through a word, staring where Ryn had curled into his son’s lap with his mouth still open. Elaine looked… well, dumbstruck, the perfectly manicured nails curled into claws on the armrest of her wheelchair. Doug was the least insulting, looking between his brother and Maddie with the look of someone who knows something is slightly off without knowing what that is. She smiled sweetly at him when he glanced back at her, trying not to laugh as he struggled to keep his face neutral. The faces of the remaining board members ranged from outright disapproval to annoyed fondness.

 

Ben, in a massive effort to bring them back to topic so they could leave some time this year was clearly not inviting questions as to his personal life.

 

“Dad, you were saying about the salmon prices being-“

 

His flat voice gave no illusion that he was willing to talk about why a girl-who-was-not-his-girlfriend was draped over his lap in front of said girlfriend, and the conversation continued on. She did her best to keep sitting still, the picture of a demure young women, doing her best to keep her face relaxed despite the sidelong glances everyone threw her every few seconds.

 

Eventually, finally, they wrapped it up, as one of the managers made a vague mention about getting back to his wife. Both of Ben’s parents and his brother immediately turned towards him, and Maddie purposefully knocked over her chair with her bag as she stood up, forcing them to turn towards the noise.

 

Ryn was curled around Ben like an octopus, her hands curled into his shirt tightly enough that trying to pry her away would rip the shirt. Maddie knew she wasn’t asleep, but the slow, deep breaths that Ryn breathed out against Ben’s collarbone were a tell to the almost mediative state she was in, out of it enough to remove the human distractions.

 

Ben ducked his head to rumble something in her ear, gently taking her arms and slowly coaxing her awake, pulling her to standing as Doug helped Maddie pick her chair back up.

 

She said thank you politely, not having come this far with Ben’s family to abandon her manners now, before ducking past Ted. Ryn’s eyes had opened, still glazed from tiredness and she willingly left the warmth of Ben’s lap to Maddie’s outstretched arm, tucking herself into Maddie’s side as Maddie steered them in the direction of the doors. Forcing herself to look back, she grinned at Ben who was nearly running in their direction, away from his parents.

 

Ryn grumbled in discontent, and stretched out her own hand to grab hold of Ben, who willingly let himself be pulled forward until they both stood either side of Ryn.

 

Ryn, not putting up with this shit any longer was already dragging them towards the car, but she managed to turn around long enough to look her hosts in the eye. “Thanks for the invite; Ted, Elaine. It was a good meeting. Doug, I’ll see you at the research centre on Wednesday.”

 

Ted spluttered something incoherently, while Elaine was beginning to look truly pissed off, but she felt Ben urge the both of them forward towards the doors and turned back around. He went to caress a hand gently across her bicep, a wordless gesture of comfort, before wrapping his arm around Ryn’s shoulders and steering them all out of dodge.

 

The two of them helped Ryn into the back of the car, ignoring the Siren’s half-hearted hiss of displeasure, and Ben kissed her on the cheek before starting the engine.

 

The drove back to the docks in relative silence, Maddie enjoying the view of the moon out the window. Ben’s hand had dropped down to rest on top of hers on the edge of the seat. She let her head rest against the window, feeling Ben’s thumb rubbing slowly back and forth across her knuckles, both of them sneaking glances at Ryn curled up in the back seat through the rear view mirror.

 

When they finally pulled up by the houseboat, she gave Ben a playful shove out of the truck, grinning at him as he went to unlock the door to let him know everything was alright. When she went to pull Ryn out of the backseat, she leant against the doorjamb for a moment, her grin softening into a gentle smile. The motion of the car had sent Ryn to sleep properly. Their fierce predator, who on land still seemed to sleep with an eye and an ear open at all times found a deeper sleep in the back of Ben’s moving truck then she ever did at any other time, was curled tightly in on herself, the slight hiss of her breath not quite a snore.

 

Ben came back to see what was taking so long, and kissed the back of Maddie’s head before he reached in, hefting Ryn into his arms and carrying her out of the car. Maddie murmured nothing words against the side of Ryn’s face as the Siren shifted slightly in discontent, but she didn’t wake up.   Over the months she had spent with them, something about Ben and Maddie had distinguished them differently to other humans, in a way that even a sleeping Ryn knew the difference between other people and her lovers.

 

She let Ben move ahead to the bedroom, setting Ryn down on the unmade bed and went to clean her teeth, humming as she felt him slide up behind her a moment later.

 

They shared the easy domesticity of the task together, passing a tube of toothpaste back and forth, letting the other person use the sink to spit and rinse. Maddie pulled her shirt off to find something cleaner to wear to bed, but before she did so she looped her arms around Ben’s neck and pulled him close to her.

 

“We’ll deal with it in the morning” she said softly, voice quiet to fit with the dark houseboat. “I’m not saying we won’t have to deal with it at all, but it can wait until the morning. After breakfast.”

 

Ben let out a huff against her cheek, nudging her with his nose. “After breakfast hey? Is this your way of telling me to make waffles again?”

 

She grinned, head-butting him very gently. “Waffles and raw squid. Ryn thought we were poisoning her last time I made eggs.”

 

She felt, rather than heard his chuckle in his chest, pressed up against hers before pulling away to tug and overlarge t-shirt of Ben’s over her head. She crawled in next to Ryn, feeling the Siren migrate further over to her side to squirm against the new warmth, watching Ben contentedly as he shuffled around the room. Too tired to properly appreciate Ryn’s body heat pressed up against her, she laid butterfly kisses all up the side of Ryn’s face open to the air against her, shutting her eyes and locking her arm around Ryn’s waist.

 

The bed dipped again as Ben got in, his heavy breath exhaling as he lay down. He stretched one arm out so that it ran along the very top of Ryn’s head, the other hand creeping down to hold onto hers, pressed into the warm skin of Ryn’s waist where her shirt had ridden up.

 

If Ryn slept like an octopus, clinging to any available blanket or body part she could reach, Ben slept like a starfish, limbs everywhere, constantly looking like he was one leg away from kicking everyone else out of bed. The least picky of the three of them, Maddie was fine either way, able to fall asleep in literally any position that she found herself forced into by both of her bed partners.

 

Eyes still shut, she pressed a soft kiss against Ryn’s lips, the younger Siren not even waking up enough to stir. “’Night” she whispered, breath fanning out over Ryn’s face to reach Ben.

 

She felt him squeeze her hand as he said goodnight back, before she let the twin warmth’s of her partners and the gentle sway of the houseboat take over, and send her to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear if you liked it or not. Any ideas or prompts you'd like to see? Send them my way. You can find my tumblr here: https://radpeacharbiter.tumblr.com


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